Okanagan service dog provides comfort to Tumbler Ridge community

A Penticton woman and her service dog have been instrumental in providing care to the community of Tumbler Ridge as the town continues to cope following February’s mass shooting.

Dede Dacyk works in victim services with the Penticton RCMP and is usually accompanied by seven-year-old Benelli, or Benny, a half Labrador, half golden retriever.

The day after Jesse Van Rootselaar shot and killed her mother and half-brother before going to the high school where she killed five students and an educator – Dacyk was asked to visit the community with Benny to provide support.

“Benny and I would go out for walks, and walk around the town and go into businesses, and people would look at me and just start crying,” she said.

Dacyk describes Benny as a “calming, gentle soul.”

She adds her loyal companion is an accredited facility dog who was raised and trained at the Pacific Assistance Dogs Society in Burnaby.

On their first visit to Tumbler Ridge, Dacyk said they spent time at the town’s community centre.

“Kids just kind of flopped right down on the ground with her and would hold her,” she said.

“It was very touching.”

Benny and Dacyk were asked to visit again last month as students prepared to return to school.

Dacyk recalled having to knock on the locked classroom doors before entering with Benny.

“I’d let her go first so her little nose would go through the door, and I would just hear kids giggling and saying ‘Oh, Benny is here! We love Benny,’” she said.

In time, Dacyk said, Benny was able to coax even the most apprehensive children.

“I saw Benny connect with this girl who was terrified of dogs, and 10 minutes later they were lying on the floor together,” she said.

“I had a tear because I thought, the last 11 years of my hard work with these dogs, it’s all worth it, right in this moment.”